Universität zu Köln

Posten, Ann-Christin and Mussweiler, Thomas (2019). Egocentric foundations of trust. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol., 84. SAN DIEGO: ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE. ISSN 1096-0465

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Trusting the trustworthy brings benefits whereas trusting the untrustworthy brings harm. Discriminating between the two is key to every social encounter. We propose that humans turn to internal information, namely the self, when judging the trustworthiness of others. Simulating how oneself would behave in situations that involve trust helps to predict how a counterpart may behave. Importantly, using the same self as a basis for judgments about others may result in diverging outcomes, depending on how the information is processed. If a judge focuses on similarities between the self and the target person, the judge expects the counterpart to act alike. However, if a judge focuses on differences, the target is expected to behave in ways opposite to the self. In Study 1, natural variations in self-ascribed levels of trustworthiness correlate positively with expectations of a target person's trustworthiness. Inducing a similarity-focus increases this correlation as compared to a difference-focus. Interestingly, this effect holds even if information speaks to the target's trustworthiness. In manipulating the perception of the participants' own trustworthiness as well as the processing focus, Studies 2-4 demonstrate that when individuals focus on similarities, those who perceive themselves as highly (vs. less) trustworthy perceive others as similarly highly (less) trustworthy. However, when they focus on differences, the reverse pattern tends to occur. These effects hold for trust judgments (Study 2-3) and trust behavior in an economic game (Study 4). Together, these findings demonstrate that trust involves egocentric inferences that are flexible enough to adjust for basic social relations.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Posten, Ann-Christin UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Mussweiler, Thomas UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-142638
DOI:	10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103820
Journal or Publication Title:	J. Exp. Soc. Psychol.
Volume:	84
Date:	2019
Publisher:	ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
Place of Publication:	SAN DIEGO
ISSN:	1096-0465
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language MECHANISMS; TRUSTWORTHINESS; ASSIMILATION; PERCEPTION; CONTRAST; BIAS Multiple languages Psychology, Social Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/14263